Words by Maura Mancini

At the Port Douglas marina there’s always movement: deckhands rinsing salt from rails, tourists drifting towards reef boats, ropes creaking against cleats. Chances are, you’ll cross paths with Ricky Tishler, the man behind Armour Yachtcare, the trusted name keeping hulls gleaming and vessels seaworthy in a climate that constantly tries to corrode everything.

I’ve helped Ricky on a couple of jobs around the marina and in the yard behind the slipway, in the shade of a vessel on the travel-lift. He works with the steady focus of someone underwater: unhurried, precise, aware of everything without needing to look twice.

Head offshore past the headland and Ricky changes gears. He’s an experienced spearfisherman with the Great Barrier Reef as his backyard. From superyacht decks to hidden reefs, his world runs on salt, tide and hours spent beneath the surface.

But his story didn’t start here, Port Douglas was a calling, not a coincidence.

A Childhood That Led North

Ricky grew up far from the ocean in Lightning Ridge, the opal-mining heart of New South Wales which is not exactly from where you’d expect a future freediver to emerge. Yet water was never far away. His grandparents ran charter game fishing and scuba diving trips at Lizard Island and Ricky spent holidays flying north exploring the reef. While learning to dive and fish he gradually built the confidence that would shape his life.

“I felt at home on the ocean before I even knew it,” he says.

He began spearfishing at just 12 in Hervey Bay, discovering a love for both the challenge and the quiet intimacy of the underwater world.

Finding Home in Port Douglas

After years working mining sites around the world, Ricky was living in Sydney when a motivational seminar with Tony Robbins triggered a decision that surprised even him. In a short time, he quit, packed his life, and headed north.

Work and travel shaped his early years, but Port Douglas gave him something new: freedom. The moment he arrived in Port Douglas, Ricky bought a small boat. The reef was finally within reach.

“Here, you don’t need to steam for hours,” he says. “The reef is just there.”

Walking down Macrossan Street almost a decade ago, he felt something instantly familiar.

“It just felt like home,” he recalls.

He stepped into the marine world full-time, starting as a dive instructor with local operator Calypso, and within 18 months he was skippering their vessels across the reef. When COVID paused tourism, he began helping with boat maintenance in the marina, a job that sparked a career.

Today, Ricky manages 22 boats through Armour Yachtcare, trusted by locals and visiting yacht owners, with most clients relying on him year-round to care for their vessels as if they were his own.

The Quiet Discipline of Spearfishing

Ricky speaks about spearfishing the way some people describe meditation.

“Freediving is silence,” he explains. “Spearing just gives the silence a purpose.”

There’s nothing impulsive about how he hunts. In the water, he is relaxed, methodical, and grounded, the opposite of what most people imagine when they think of spearfishing.

Many assume spearfishing is extreme, but for Ricky it’s a practice of calm and control: steady breathing, awareness of limits, respect for the ocean, and trust in his dive partners. Each dive is deliberate: one diver down at a time, float line in place, a buddy on watch, and a first-aid kit with a tourniquet always within reach.

Hunting With Purpose

Ricky’s philosophy is simple: take only what you need. Spearfishing, he explains, is one of the most selective and sustainable ways to catch seafood, no by-catch, no waste, no guesswork.

When conditions line up, light winds, clear water, steady current, he targets dogtooth tuna, a species known for powerful runs, tearing gear, deep-water pressure, needing precise shot placement and breaking confidence.

Spearfishers don’t chase blindly, they read the water. Currents hitting a reef, lifting pressure lines, and bait holding tight all signal where dogtooth might be sitting just off the edge.

When he’s not chasing big pelagics offshore, he targets coral trout around reef bommies and ledges, and tuskfish over sandy patches and rubble, and crayfish tucked into crevices along the reef.

October and November are his preferred months in Far North Queensland, glassy seas, long weather windows, and the reef at its sharpest. His reward isn’t the shot, it’s the food. After a day on the water, he enjoys preparing the catch: ceviche, sashimi, coral trout skin-fried, a simple fish wrap. “You get the best food in the world,” he says, “and I love sharing it.”

Moments That Stay With Him

A close encounter with a bull shark shook him, but also clarified something: awareness, staying calm, knowing your limits, and respecting the wild environment are the only ways to dive safely.

But not all memories are adrenaline-fueled. Most moments on the reef are calm and joyful, light falling through the water, the muffled heartbeat of the sea. But one experience stands apart.

At Ribbon Reef Five, one of the most pristine stretches of the Great Barrier Reef, he surfaced to find a whale shark gliding alongside. The gentle giant lingered, unhurried and majestic, a humbling reminder of the scale and wonder of the ocean.

The Man Behind Armour Yachtcare

On land, Ricky brings the same discipline to Armour Yachtcare, overseeing detailing, maintenance, and prevention. These days he doesn’t do it alone; as he puts it, Abel Terry is his right-hand man. Born and bred in Port Douglas, Abel is another young local legend and a passionate fisherman, backing Ricky on every job and making Armour Yachtcare a homegrown operation. Working in the tropics means early starts to beat the heat, and the wet season can sometimes shut the yard entirely.

“Boats can become a headache for their owners,” he says. “We help boat owners avoid problems before they happen.” 

The work can be tough, but the reward outweighs everything: a life lived close to the water, in a community he loves.

What Comes Next

With business thriving, Ricky recently upgraded to the boat he always dreamt of, an Edencraft. He hopes to expand Armour Yachtcare also into Cairns and help more people to care for their vessels. And of course, there are still dream dives ahead.

Some people move to Port Douglas for the reef. Others stay because they can’t imagine leaving it. Ricky is one of the latter, someone whose life didn’t just find the water, but was quietly shaped by it. He embodies the spirit of Port Douglas: a place where the reef is never far, where life is lived outdoors and on the sea, and where work, play, and passion merge into something defined by salt, sun, and tide.